Sunday, July 26, 2009

Another slow weekend

Well another weekend has come and gone with hardly anything achieved down the shed. If only we had 56 hours in a weekend to achieve it all.

It wasn’t a complete waste. Saturday saw me and two mates head over to the Castle Hill Exhibition arriving there at kickoff time to see if any bargains could be had at the second hand stall. If only I was an American or British modeller I could have done well. There were many magazines to be had for a reasonable price but then you have to find the time to read them.

Time and Patience part 2 was there shrouded in a perspex case to keep the flies off. Just like paintings that you recognise a style, when I first saw the layout there, it was easily recognisable as coming from the T & P stable. The houses and buildings are truly magnificent. Lets hope it is designed to fit into T & P No 1 and make a longer layout.

Only one purchase was made from the Model Craftsman stand. On the back of the stand I spotted a packet of that stretchy elastic stuff that makes power wires and fence wiring. The real bargain side of this product is that you get 100 feet on the roll and they reckon it stretches 700%. So I am getting heaps more for my money. You don’t get that when you buy a yard of Peco track. Stretch it as much as you can and you will still only have one yard. I must get this onto the fences as soon as possible to stop the cows getting onto the line. Imagine then when they charge the fence they will get flung back to the centre of the paddock.

I returned home for lunch and after that settled in to move a ton or so of paving sand. Managed to get to the shed after tea, but when I get inside I see the 729 projects I have to do to get finished and end up doing none of them. I should think of a project for next weekend ahead during the week and just go down there and do it.

So this weekend I shall post another clip of the garratt. I know you will get sick of seeing this loco but it is my one and only sound loco. I await No 2 sound loco which will be a 40 class. As an aside I must thank Mr Eureka for offering sound options with all of his locos. I don’t know why it is so hard for the other manufacturers to do so. Just like buying a car with the steering wheel optional.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

The High's and Low's of the weekend.Not much was achieved railway wise this weekend. My No. 1 priority was to move the TV aerial higher to finally re-receive channel 7 once again. I did all the preliminary work outside by taking down the aerial from its existing place and trying to balance it 10' up a ladder and then inserting a dynabolt to secure it. After finally getting the first one in and then drilling another hole the second dynabolt was easy to put in. The third dynabolt is for another time as they only came in a two pack.Then before I squeezed into the manhole entrance I made a final check that I had everything to do the job. Pliers - check, cutting knife - check, torch - check, last will - check. It was such a squeeze getting to the point where I needed to get the new wires joined up that I didn't want to have to come out again. Finally arriving at the worksite when I checked the plug from the aerial it was a boy plug that was supposed to go into a female plug. But no, I had a boy meets boy plug which doesn't go. It was supposed to go into a splitter then one wire to a TV in the family room and the other into the lounge room. I fixed it temporarily by using the front plug holes of the splitter but now I have to get a plug with a girl hole in each end to meet up with the boy plugs. So another trip into the roof in the future. But the good news is all channels are now working and suck eggs to the guy that quoted me $440 to fix it. (thats another loco or so)I did go into the shed this afternoon for a while and came up for dinner, and forgot to shut the door.And when I went back down after tea, I heard a noise in the shed. For a fleeting moment I thought the rats were back but when I got inside it was a bandicoot having a stickbeak. I then ducked under the layout and came around from the other side and luckily he shot through out the door. All I need now is the trifecta with a snake turning up in summer time. Don't worry I have already crossed possums off the list as well.With 700 jobs to do on the list I thought I might as well have a go at making another tree. It took two Moody Blues CD's and when they had finished it was time to pack up for another week.